Men's Journal

Pacific Outdoor Uber High Mountain

The Über High Mountain sleeping pad uses nanotechnology to deliver a good night’s rest. Sandwiched between supportive EVA and rugged PE foams is aerogel, considered Earth’s best-insulating material. The result is a cushy camp mattress that blocks out the ground’s cold and weighs only 14 ounces. [$99; pacoutdoor.com]

A brief history of aero-gel: In 1931 an American chemist made a bet that he could replace jelly in a jar with a gas that kept the same volume. He won, inventing aerogel, the least dense substance ever (up to 99.5 percent air). Too brittle and costly to create outside of labs, it finally found function thanks to NASA. In 1999, NASA used aerogel to catch comet dust, and now they’re lining the spacesuits for a 2018 manned mission to Mars with it (an 18mm layer can protect astronauts from temps of –202 Fahrenheit). But wait, there’s more! It can be engineered to absorb toxins such as lead from water or a direct explosive blast without disintegrating. It makes a comfy bed, too.

Gregory Z30

The Z30 pack is just as comfortable carrying a jacket, a water bottle, and a Zagat guide to Florence as it is stuffed for an overnight trip into the woods, and that’s because of Gregory’s JetStream DTS suspension. The lightweight steel stays increase support as you add more weight to the pack, resulting in a frame that’s always perfectly dialed in. [$139; gregorypacks.com]

Brunton Solo 3.4

It’s about the size of a pack of smokes, weighs only 12 ounces, and could be the smartest thing you pack on your next trek. The Solo battery recharges small electronics like cell phones, iPods, and digicams. Then, when it’s time to recharge the Solo, plug it into a wall, a car, or a USB port, or use the sun’s rays with one of Brunton’s Solaris solar panels. [$65; brunton.com]

Bushnell Infinity

You can spend several grand on a pair of high-end binoculars, but for the average outdoorsman/voyeur, Bushnell’s goggles tick all the boxes and leave you some cash to spare. They’re light (just 25 ounces), and they boast 45mm wide lenses that provide a large field of vision and enough light to keep us from going cross-eyed during prolonged use. Plus, the long-range focus held up against sets six times as expensive. [$432; bushnell.com]

Jetboil Helios 2l

During a tree-toppling windstorm in the Cascades, the Helios stove brought 1.5 liters of water to a boil in less than three minutes, and here’s how: Whereas most stoves burn compressed gas in its evaporated form, the Helios uses it as a liquid, which burns more efficiently and more completely. That little bit of science allows it to heat water faster than the competition while sucking down less fuel, too. [$150; jetboil.com]

Surefire Saint

SureFire translated its expertise in military-spec flashlights to your cranium with its first ever headlamp. Two features impressed us: The LEDs can output anywhere from 0 to 100 lumens, letting you fine-tune the light rather than having to choose from a few settings, and the rear-mounted battery pack accepts one, two, or three CR123 lithium cells (or AA alkalines in a pinch). [$185; surefire.com]

Garmin Oregon 400T

The 400t has everything you could want from a handheld GPS, including a touchscreen, preloaded 3-D topo maps, a compass, and an altimeter. What sets it apart from the GPS rabble is its customization. You can reorder menu items and specify settings for different profiles — say, dimming the screen for car use but brightening it for geocaching. [$600; garmin.com]

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